Unlike the comedy The Anarchist and his Dog (1907), this film shows the real fear of anarchists and their plans. Here the anarchist, with a curiously Spanish-sounding name, tries to obtain the secret formula of a newly-developed explosive. The film was originally titled The Tube of Death, referring to the development of the new explosive.

The trappings of the secret anarchist society are revealed, as are their secret underground meeting place, strange greetings, diabolical plans, and moral ambivalence in pursuing the widow of a recently-murdered scientist. However, the role of the widow is just as interesting as those of the anarchists. Like the heroine of OHMS (1913), she is steely and resolute in her determination to avenge her husband's death, which she does by killing the anarchists with her husband's invention.